page_title: Megalosaurus
section_title: Later finds of Megalosaurus bucklandii
hierarchical_section_title: Megalosaurus / Discovery and naming / Later finds of Megalosaurus bucklandii
caption_attribution_description: fémur mégalosaurus, Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Gray
context_page_description: Megalosaurus is an extinct genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Southern England. Although fossils from other areas have been assigned to the genus, the only certain remains of Megalosaurus come from Oxfordshire and date to the late Middle Jurassic.
  Megalosaurus was, in 1824, the first genus of non-avian dinosaur to be validly named. The type species is Megalosaurus bucklandii, named in 1827. In 1842, Megalosaurus was one of three genera on which Richard Owen based his Dinosauria. On Owen's directions a model was made as one of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, which greatly increased the public interest for prehistoric reptiles. Subsequently, over fifty other species would be classified under the genus, originally because dinosaurs were not well known, but even during the 20th century after many dinosaurs had been discovered. Today it is understood these additional species were not directly related to M. bucklandii, which is the only true Megalosaurus species. Because a complete skeleton of it has never been found, much is still unclear about its build.
context_section_description: The quarries at Stonesfield, which were worked until 1911, continued to produce Megalosaurus bucklandii fossils, mostly single bones from the pelvis and hindlimbs. Vertebrae and skull bones are rare. In 2010, Roger Benson counted a total of 103 specimens from the Stonesfield Slate, from a minimum of seven individuals. It has been contentious whether this material represents just a single taxon. In 2004, Julia Day and Paul Barrett claimed that there were two morphotypes present, based on small differences in the thighbones. In 2008 Benson favoured this idea, but in 2010 concluded the differences were illusory. A maxilla fragment, specimen OUM J13506, was, in 1869 assigned, by Thomas Huxley, to M. bucklandii. In 1992 Robert Thomas Bakker claimed it represented a member of the Sinraptoridae; in 2007, Darren Naish thought it was a separate species belonging to the Abelisauroidea. In 2010, Benson pointed out that the fragment was basically indistinguishable from other known M. bucklandii maxillae, to which it had in fact not been compared by the other authors.
  Apart from the finds in the Taynton Limestone Formation, in 1939 Sidney Hugh Reynolds referred remains to Megalosaurus that had been found in the older Chipping Norton Limestone Formation dating from the early Bathonian, about thirty single teeth and bones. Though the age disparity makes it problematic to assume an identity with Megalosaurus bucklandii, in 2009 Benson could not establish any relevant anatomical differences with M. bucklandii among the remains found at one site, the New Park Quarry, and therefore affirmed the reference to that species. However, in another site, the Oakham Quarry, the material contained one bone, an ilium, that was clearly dissimilar.
  Sometimes trace fossils have been referred to Megalosaurus or to the ichnogenus Megalosauripus. In 1997, a famous group of fossilised footprints (ichnites) was found in a limestone quarry at Ardley, twenty kilometres northeast of Oxford. They were thought to have been made by Megalosaurus and possibly also some left by Cetiosaurus. There are replicas of some of these footprints, set across the lawn of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. One track was of a theropod accelerating from walking to running. According to Benson, such referrals are unprovable, as the tracks show no traits unique to Megalosaurus. Certainly they should be limited to finds that are of the same age as Megalosaurus bucklandii.
  Finds from sites outside England, especially in France, have in the nineteenth and twentieth century been referred to M. bucklandii. In 2010 Benson considered these as either clearly different or too fragmentary to establish an identity.
caption: Referred femur in France
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